Hopeless Courage: "Tolkien had eternal respect for such figures who fought against evil not for the promise of any eternal reward (there was none; Valhalla was but a training ground for the final battle in which the forces of good would be obliterated once and for all), but for the simple reason that it was the right thing to do. The hopeless struggle of good against evil evokes a world in which heroes are able to attain a nobility of character unparalleled in other traditions and mythologies."

Hopeless Courage: "Tolkien had eternal respect for such figures who fought against evil not for the promise of any eternal reward (there was none; Valhalla was but a training ground for the final battle in which the forces of good would be obliterated once and for all), but for the simple reason that it was the right thing to do. The hopeless struggle of good against evil evokes a world in which heroes are able to attain a nobility of character unparalleled in other traditions and mythologies."